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I'm heading to Las Vegas in two weeks with a few of the 8 Man Rotation folk (Kris Dunn, Steve Boese, Lance Haun)
to take in a couple days of NBA Summer League action. Worth revisiting
this July 2013 post. If you're in the area, come join us.On July 13-16, I will join three of my colleagues behind the 8 Man Rotation
in Las Vegas (we always leave one behind to keep it going in case
something befalls the rest of us) for two to three days to catch some NBA Summer League action.Why
do we want to head to the desert in summer time to spend 8-10 hours a
day in a gym watching exhibition basketball when those games don't
matter?Because, in actuality, the games DO matter....for those playing. In his piece on Grantland, Steve McPherson describes what it is like for those involved:

These are guys who have worked their entire lives to be one of the
450 players in the top basketball league in the world. Guys who spent
their whole lives being one of the best basketball players in any
situation they ever found themselves in. And now it’s just the grind.
They’re simply looking for their shot.

The ones hoping for that shot are almost universally flawed in one
way or another: undersized or stuck between positions; not good enough
at one specific thing to be useful to a team; dogged by problems we
can’t even see, the kind of stuff many of us carry around.........

But for these players — who are among the top one or two percent of
basketball players in the world — it’s their big chance. Not to become
something they’re not, but to see their years of work turn them into
what they’ve always been striving toward.

Those
playing over these few days in Orlando and in Las Vegas are no
different than the applicants to your organization. They're polishing
their resumes, taking your work sample test, engaging in your role play
or simulation, trying to impress you enough to take a chance on them.

For
us watching, it will be passing entertainment...but for those involved,
it will be all too real, with stakes that truly matter to them.